Mail News Service
New Delhi, Mar 15 : The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar has said that out of the total 1385 projects, sanctioned at cost of Rs. 11389.26 crore under the NLCPR scheme and special BTC package, 663 projects at a total cost of Rs. 3726.44 crore have been completed.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha today he said, out of the remaining ongoing projects, in 425 projects completion has not been achieved on the target date These projects are at various stages of implementation. For the timely completion of these projects their progress is reviewed with the State Governments from time to time. To encourage the State Government for their expeditious completion, an incentive in terms of additional retention of Rs. 20.00 crore projects as per State choice, for the best performing State in terms of completion of projects have been introduced.
The Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) Shri Paban Singh Ghatowar has said that no charter demands highlighting the priority areas for development of north-eastern region during 1998-2004 was received from Chief Ministers of North East States by the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region.
In a written reply in Rajya Sabha today he said, in order to mobilize financial resources for speedy implementation of the Shukla Commission recommendations relating to Basic Minimum Services (BMS) and infrastructure development of North east, a policy decision was taken to earmark at least 10% of the Plan Budget(s) of the Central Ministries/Departments for development of the North Eastern States. Government of India also created a Non-Lapsable Central Pool of Resources (NLCPR) consisting of unspent balance of mandatory 10% of the budgetary allocation for NER. The Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region is the nodal Ministry for administration and management of NLCPR and also for matters relating to the planning, execution and monitoring of development schemes and projects of NER.
He said, as a result of the above policy initiatives, large amount of funds have been invested for the development of infrastructure in the NER (road, rail, power, power etc.), health, education & culture, employment generation, women & child development, backward area development etc. by the respective ministries.
Ghatowar said, the North Eastern Council (NEC) has been instrumental in setting in motion a new economic endeavour aimed at removing the basic handicaps that stood in the way of development of the region. The NEC Act was amended in 2002. The amended NEC Act provides that NEC will function as the Regional Planning Body for the North East and will formulate specific projects and schemes, which will benefit two or more States.
NEC was instrumental in the preparation of North Eastern Region Vision 2020, which provides the road-map, outlines the goals, identifies the challenges and suggests implementation strategies for various sectors for peace, prosperity and development of the North Eastern Region. It helps in formulation of an integrated plan for the development of the North Eastern Region.
Read more / Original news source: http://manipur-mail.com/funds-for-development-of-north-eastern-region/
